[Extract]

. . . The Bill to authorize the [British] Admiralty to issue letters of marque to private ship owners who want to make raids on American ships has given us the same reaction as they have to you. The King and his counselors consider it as an act of desperation which will undoubtedly interfere with commerce of other nations and subject the general tranquility to the greatest dangers; I will explain it to M. Stormont in this sense in the first conf erencc I have with him, and I shall not refrain from telling the Ambassador that the Bill in question was adopted by parliament, it could put us in a position of taking steps to protect our commerce from the rapacity of English shipowners. If British ministers should give occasion for an interview on the subject you will not keep from their own way of thinking and you will repeat the reflections and the fear which I propose to communicate to Lord Stormont. You will take care, sir, to e,press your thoughts with caution so that your proposals cannot be taken as threats or as a result of obstinacy. Moreover the English might modify their Bill in such a way as to take away any apprehension on the part of other nations. For example if they restrained their corsairs from running down Americans by forbidding them to visit or harrass ships of another flag when they are assured by inspection of the papers that they belong to the flag by which they are covered . . . .